Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. When the church is being the church, she is beautiful. What glory God receives when a messy group of people from different backgrounds come together under the cross in love and unity.
In 2 Corinthians 7, 13 through 16, Paul joyfully commends the church of Corinth for being what God made it to be. Let's listen as Pastor Rich unpacks today's passage. This is part three of a message first preached on June 15, 2014. How can I be one who is at work in somebody else's life? How can I be an instrument of God to work in this person's life, to get involved in the messiness there? Instead of speaking negatively about them, I will speak well of them in terms of the work that God is doing.
The elements of real community where the church becomes a banquet. The second point is this, not only do we speak well of each other, but we speak truth. We speak truth.
We speak truth. Listen, truth is a necessary part of love. As I said before, love without truth is hypocrisy. If you pretend to love your brother and sister, but you're not willing to speak truth, you're a hypocrite. That's strong language.
I understand that, but it's true. If you act like you love your brother and sister, but you're not willing to speak truth to them, you're a hypocrite. And sometimes we're so bent on trying to keep a relationship or keep a friendship that we're not willing to speak truth. And if I have a brother or a sister who is in error and I'm not willing to speak truth, but yet I will show them and tell them that I love them, I'm a hypocrite. Loved ones, I stand before you confessing this morning that I've been guilty of that. There have been times when I have been so afraid to say something to somebody because I was afraid that they would reject me or walk away or leave the church.
And because of my hesitancy, because of my silence, because of not doing anything, guess what? They left the church anyway. It happens all the time.
It happens in every church. But the point of this is that we speak truth. Paul had to speak truth to the Corinthian church. He wasn't sure how they were going to receive it.
But you see, that's not the issue. The issue is he had to be obedient to the call to speak truth. If he truly loved the Corinthians, he would speak truth to them. And because he obeyed Christ and spoke the truth, church then became a banquet. Because Paul wasn't just speaking opinion or he wasn't just commenting on his perception of things.
He was speaking truth. And that's what we need to be very careful about. When we come together and we all recognize that there's a particular messiness in each of our lives, we're not just speaking opinion to each other.
But that's where so many people break down at this level. Because they will say, what right do you have to tell me what to do? The assumption behind a pushback like that is, well, it's just your opinion against mine. That's not what we're called to do. The Bible doesn't call us to speak opinions to each other. We are called to speak truth. Verse 14, but as we spoke all things to you in truth. There is a particular reference point to truth. There is a standard to truth. It is God's revelation. It's God's truth. And so we are called to speak that. So we speak well of each other.
We are called to speak truth. And in a real community where church becomes a banquet, not only do we speak well of each other, not only are we willing to obediently and lovingly speak truth, but there is also a very real sense of affection, a real sense of affection. Where one receives the sense from the other, I really care for you.
I think it would be fair to say that those at the Corinthian church never once felt that the apostle Paul stood over them in judgment. He genuinely cared for them. And because they knew that the apostle genuinely cared for them, they received Titus humbly and they repented and they corrected. I really care for you versus a pretense that there might be in the church. If I say I love someone or I really care for someone in the church, I need to be careful because I might just be saying you're working for the one I love the most, me.
I love you because of what you do for me. That wasn't what the apostle Paul was saying. That's not love. That's not the biblical agape. It's very easy for me to stand up here and say I love you for what you do to the church.
I love you for what you contribute to the church. That's not genuine love. That's not agape love. But among God's people, there is a genuine desire to be together because of the common bond that we have and the common purpose that we have in Christ.
All of that comes together. And when that genuine sense of affection is there, verse 15, and his affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all. Obedience to what? They submitted themselves to Paul's truth, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Paul the apostle speaking with apostolic authority. So that fourth element is just simply this, submission to biblical authority.
We have an authority for our lives. It's not a particular position in the church. It's not a personality in the church.
It's not opinions. Quite frankly, it's not even a man-made document. It is the Word of God. And when we submit ourselves to this biblical authority, and it's done so in the context of a genuine sense of affection for each other, and we speak truth, and we speak well of each other, then church becomes a banquet. And we will find that within us we'll develop this genuine desire to be in each other's company. I believe the true church senses that.
I desire to be with God's people because church is a banquet. Yeah, there's messy lives there. But you know what? There's also truth. There's also affection. There's also mutual submission to the truth. And that makes church a banquet. Submission to biblical authority.
It's apostolic authority, the authority of the scriptures. If you've read Screwtape letters, you know that Screwtape represents the adversary, the chief of demons, and he's writing to his associates, which would be the demons. And he writes to this one particular named Wormwood. So you have to remember that everything he writes is exactly opposite as it ought to be.
And when he speaks of the adversary, he's speaking of Christ, the head of the church. Here's one letter that he writes. My dear Wormwood, you mentioned casually in your last letter that the patient, that's a human being, the patient has continued to attend one church and only one since he was converted, and that he is not wholly pleased with it. May I ask what you are about?
Translation, what is the point of view, right? Why have I no report on the causes of his fidelity to the parish church? Do you realize that unless it is due to indifference, it is a very bad thing? Surely you know that if a man can't be cured of church-going, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for the church that suits him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches. The search for a suitable church makes the man a critic where the enemy wants him to be a pupil. That mutual submission to the authority of the Word of God makes church a banquet. This is verses pretense that there can be in the church.
I have sinned the sin of criticism in my heart, but I'll smile and say fine anyway. Or comparisons. Church is not going to be a banquet if we're coming together to compare ourselves to each other. That robs us of the banquet of the church. When we come together to compare ourselves, we're just simply focused on people when we should be focused on the Lord. Where there is pretense and there are comparisons in the church, then there is judgment.
Unnecessary human judgment in the church, where we point fingers at each other saying you're not what you ought to be. You know there's something very strikingly similar to this about this to marriage. I do a fair amount of premarital counseling.
And so Paul's words to the church are a lot like premarital counseling. When I counsel a young couple to get married as they're planning to get married, I tell them, you know, I don't want you to just do the thing so that your marriage survives. I want your marriage to thrive. I want your marriage to be a banquet. But it will require something of you for that to be the case. And what I tell them is you have to understand that you are two different people, but you are also two imperfect people. When you come to grips with those things that you're both different and you're both imperfect. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on Weekdays at 10 a.m.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-06-26 10:12:00 / 2024-06-26 10:16:18 / 4